Thomas McCarty beats heteronormative boredom

Growing up in a small town in Ohio— which is beautifully and somewhat ironically named Loveland—all the while becoming more and more aware of his own identity, Thomas Mccarty began exploring concepts of “hetero” and “queer”. With photography as his medium, flash-lit male genitalia, pink Ohioan skies and gender-fluidness became a few of the subjects later born out of this exploration. By challenging the boredom of hetero-normativity, McCarty quickly piqued the interest of newly sprung gender bending—or rather, gender anarchistic—brands like Vejas, Moses Gauntlett Cheng and Vaquera. The result was a set of strong yet gentle photos at New York Fashion Week. But with attention comes doubt, and on his Tumblr McCarty writes: “re-examining my work. tired of redundant photographs. what are photographs doing?” An impossible question to answer, but McCarty’s photographs, at least to us, provide much-needed breathing space in what can sometimes feel like a thick, frozen layer of convention.